Marsha Blackburn: “I will have to say that people do like across-the-board cuts. Indeed, many governors, Republican and Democrat alike, use…”

“I will have to say that people do like across-the-board cuts. Indeed, many governors, Republican and Democrat alike, use these. From coast-to-coast, they have used these. And our constituents like them. Take a look at the December 2012 POLITICO-George Washington University Battleground Tracking Poll. It shows 75 percent approve of them. January 2013, The Hill, 6-in-10 approve. Look at what happened in Oklahoma in December: a 3 percent across-the-board cut. In March, they did a 4 percent across-the-board cut. Why is it that our governors do these? They work. Department heads like to be able to go in there and find a way to cut a little bit more in that budget and still meet the needs that the people have said they want to see their government meet. We have $19.3 trillion in debt. We are working to get the cost of government down, but we have to do a little bit more. This is a way to engage rank-and-file Federal employees and to say to them: It is time for us to get our fiscal house in order. A penny on the dollar is what our constituents are doing. We should do likewise. It is what our States are doing, because they can't crank the printing press. They can't go borrow money. They can't have more of our debt that is owned by China and Japan and OPEC and the entities that own our debt. They have to have balanced budget amendments. When I was in the Tennessee State Senate, we didn't go home until we had the budget in balance.…”